How to Add folder to Explorer Favorites navigation pane from the Command Line?

Question

In Windows 7 is there a way to add a location to the Explorer Favorites navigation pane from the command line? I'm working with systems that are frequently re-imaged, and I would like to automate adding a number of favorite folders to explorer.

I imagine these favorites are also stored in the registry. If someone knows where, I could probably automate managing them through the reg command, although this is less than ideal. I've looked at a number of locations related to explorer suggested here, but haven't found them yet.

For information on customizing the favorites section of the navigation pane with Explorer, see http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/10357/add-your-own-folders-to-favorites-in-windows-7/

Answer 1

They are stored in each user's profile under %USERPROFILE%\Links.

From the Start search, or Run dialog, or in Explorer (etc.) you can also get there by typing shell:links.

Answer 2

AFAIK there is no native method to create a shortcut via the command line (and the Favourites here cannot be a symlink, they must be a shortcut). You can do it using xxmklink:

XXMKLINK.EXE "%userprofile%\Links\Dropbox.lnk" "C:\Dropbox"

Would create a windows Explorer Favourite to C:\Dropbox

Answer 3

I believe this answers the question.

I made a function from that post. It might come in handy for someone:

Function New-Shortcut {
Param(
    [Parameter(mandatory=$true)]$TargetPath,
    [Parameter(mandatory=$true)]$Name
)
    $WshShell = New-Object -comObject WScript.Shell
    $Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$env:USERPROFILE\Links\$Name.lnk")
    $Shortcut.TargetPath = $TargetPath
    $Shortcut.Save()
}